It is well known that certain insect larvae attack clothes which are in storage or in closets, especially clothes of woolen materials. Conventional ways of preventing this larvae damage have included packing clothes with mothballs, placing the clothes in a cedar closet, or storing the clothes with blocks made of cedar wood. Each of these solutions has serious drawbacks.
Mothballs, as is well known, have an unpleasant smell which clings to the clothes after they have been removed from storage. While cedar closets effectively prevent insect damage and impart a pleasant scent to clothes, such structures are expensive to construct and provide far more protection than is necessary. Thus, clothes which are not susceptible to attack by insect larvae, as well as woolen garments stored for short durations in cedar closets do not require the protection provided by such structures. As to simple blocks of cedar wood, it has been found that they are difficult to keep in place or to keep in proximity to woolen clothes or in the parts that are in need of protection. Instead, the blocks frequently fall out of place or to the floor of a closet, where their localized protection from insect larvae is of no use. The exuded vapor pressure falls to an unusable level after about 10-12 months.
Several approaches have been taken in the past to overcome the problem. Traversi, U.S. Pat. No. 989,448 disclosed a hollow garment hanger with a plurality of holes accessing an interim filled with cedar shavings. Travis, U.S. Pat. No. 1,863,511 discloses a base with holes containing cedar shavings. Farrel, U.S. Pat. No. 4,499,015 discloses vermiculite impregnated, inter alia, with cedar wood oil and cedar wood ketone in an open container. Recently, Widman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,871 attempted to overcome the vapor pressure drop problem by inserting an abrasive block in contact proximity to a cedar wood block to renew the exposed surface.